So when David returned from striking down the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. He still had the head of the Philistine in his hand.

Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David replied, “I am the son of your servant Jesse in Bethlehem.” ¹ 

Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly ¹  and they ran away from him.

Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon ¹  Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. ² 

Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan ¹  in order to strike him down. So Jonathan was convinced ²  that his father had decided to kill David.

So David asked the Lord once again. But again the Lord replied, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.”

Then David said, “O Lord God of Israel, your servant has clearly heard that Saul is planning ¹  to come to Keilah to destroy the city because of me.

David asked, “Will the leaders of Keilah deliver me and my men into Saul’s hand?” The Lord said, “They will deliver you over.”

So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find ¹  David and his men in the region of ²  the rocks of the mountain goats. ³ 

David restrained his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. Then Saul left the cave and started down ¹  the road.

Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David left and went down to the desert of Paran. ¹ 

But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet ¹  our lord, but he screamed at them.

Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them.

The Lord has done exactly as I prophesied! ¹  The Lord has torn the kingdom from your hand and has given it to your neighbor David!

So David and his men got up early in the morning to return ¹  to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned. ¹  Their wives, sons, and daughters had been taken captive.

Then they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. They gave him bread to eat and water to drink.

But David struck them down from twilight until the following evening. None of them escaped, with the exception of four hundred young men who got away on camels. ¹ 

Saul retained David ¹  on that day and did not allow him to return to his father’s house.

When David’s ¹  oldest brother Eliab heard him speaking to the men, he became angry ²  with David and said, “Why have you come down here? To whom did you entrust those few sheep in the desert? I am familiar with your pride and deceit! ³  You have come down here to watch the battle!”